2016 Ryder Cup: Is Davis Love III the Best Man for the Job?

On Monday evening, Tim Rosaforte of Golf Channel reported that Davis Love III will be named captain of the 2016 United States Ryder Cup team.

Rosaforte said that the PGA of America will make a formal announcement on February 24 at the PGA of America headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Following yet another embarrassing loss last September at Gleneagles, the PGA of America organized a task force to attempt to address the issues that have been ailing the U.S. Ryder Cup team over the past two decades.

This star-studded task force included the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Raymond Floyd and Paul Azinger.

With losses in six out of the last seven Ryder Cup matches, most expected the task force to come up with some rather significant—and perhaps even out-of-the-box—changes to various aspects of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, such as the qualifying process, captain’s picks and even the captain selection process.

However, very few would have expected those changes to involve bringing back a captain who suffered the worst Sunday collapse in Ryder Cup history less than three years ago (the U.S. Ryder Cup team squandered a 10-6 lead heading into the Sunday singles matches with Love as captain back in 2012).

The PGA of America rarely brings back a captain for a second term.

Tom Watson was the first man to captain more than one U.S. Ryder Cup team since 1993, but Watson was also victorious in his first captaincy.

So, bringing back a former captain for the second consecutive time could certainly be labelled as an out-of-the-box decision by the PGA of America and the Ryder Cup task force.

But why Love?

Other potential choices for the 2016 captaincy included names such as Fred Couples, who has yet to captain a losing side in the Presidents Cup, and Azinger, who was the last man to captain a victorious American Ryder Cup team.

Rex Hoggard of GolfChannel.com reported that despite meeting with PGA of America officials several times, Azinger took his name out of the running for the 2016 captaincy.

“I had no interest in being the captain in 2016 for many reasons, personal and business,” Azinger said, as reported by Hoggard.

However, it is difficult to believe that Azinger would have truly declined another opportunity to captain the U.S. Ryder Cup team if he were pushed to do so by both the PGA of America and the Ryder Cup task force.

So if the PGA of America wanted to bring back a former captain who already possessed Ryder Cup experience, why not bring back the last man who was actually successful (Azinger)?

Or if the PGA of America wanted to bring in someone new, why not bring in the guy who has won three consecutive Presidents Cup matches (Couples)?

At this point, the logic is unclear behind the PGA of America’s choice to bring back the captain who oversaw the most epic collapse in Ryder Cup history.

That would be equivalent to the New York Jets firing Rex Ryan, and then three years later having a choice of Super Bowl champion coaches such as Bill Belichick, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll and Tom Coughlin but choosing to bring Ryan back instead.

Now, this article is not meant to paint Love as some kind of incompetent Ryder Cup captain who couldn’t properly motivate his players.

Love is well-respected by his peers, and many thought he did a great job at putting his team in prime position to win on that fateful Sunday back in 2012.

After all, it was the players who were losing their matches one after another that Sunday afternoon at Medinah, and not Love.

But was Love really the best possible choice to reverse the U.S. Ryder Cup team’s losing ways when other potential captains included men who have won previous Ryder Cups or multiple Presidents Cup matches?

Perhaps the PGA of America and the Ryder Cup task force know something that the rest of us do not.

Because at this point, the reasoning behind selecting Love as the 2016 Ryder Cup captain, and not Couples or Azinger, is nothing short of baffling.